Tuukka Rask Praises ‘Smart Players’ Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy For Game-Winner

Charlie McAvoy made arguably the game’s best defensive play and it led to Brad Marchand making the most important offensive one at the other end.

The Boston Bruins earned a 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday after a McAvoy-to-Marchand sequence led the the game-winning goal. That goal earned Boston a fourth consecutive win.

It was a perfect display of hand-eye coordination as McAvoy used his stick to knock down a right-to-left pass, collecting the puck only to find Marchand with a pass off the boards. The Bruins winger carried the puck from center ice and slid one past New York goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.

Check it out, via the team:

The play impressed Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (33 saves ton 35 shots), who was in position just behind McAvoy.

“Yeah, that was great,” Rask told reporters after the game. “That’s three-on-three. You have to take chances at times, you can’t just bring three guys back and go three guys up, it becomes a little static.

“So Marchy took a chance there, saw a read that we might cut that play off then Chucky obviously recognized that and chucked the puck off the boards and (Marchand) made a great move. Smart players make smart plays, I think that was the case on that.”

It was the first goal of the game and eighth of the season for Marchand.

“I thought we were going to tend it there,” the winger said of an earlier opportunity before his overtime winner. “But Chucky knocked it down, made a great play to get it up (ice) and lucky we were able to capitalize on it.”

The Bruins move to 9-1-2 with the victory.